Page:California Inter Pocula.djvu/25



say outside  of  California. Here we  have  others,  so that  if  the  great  chasm  of  chasms  should  ever  be  lost to us,  we  still  should  not  be  without  our  wonder. There is  the  Little  Yosemite  valley  above  the  Nevada fall, with  its  concentric  granite  structures,  and  the same river  flowing:  throuoh  it  in  beautiful  cascades; and there  is  the  Hetch-hetchy  valley,  which,  if  a  little less grand  than  the  Yosemite,  would  answer  well enough in  place  of  it. The Hetch-hetchy  chasm  walls the Tuolumne  river  about  sixteen  miles  north-west from Yosemite. It is  three  miles  in  length,  from  an eighth  to  half  a  mile  in  width,  with  walls  not  quite  so high  as  those  of  the  Yosemite,  though  the  volume  of water  flowing  into  it  is  much  greater. It extends  in the  same  direction  as  Yosemite,  has  a  perpendicular blufl* — the counterpart  of  El  Capitan,  a  large  stream fed by  the  melting  snows  which  fall  over  a  clifl"  1,000 feet  in  height;  has  in  the  Hetch-hetchy  fall,  1700 feet  in  height,  the  counterpart  of  the  Yosemite  fall, with  its  Cathedral  rock,  2,270  feet  in  height ;  finally, at  its  upper  end,  it  splits  into  two  canons  instead  of three  as  at  Yosemite.  All  alono;  the  base  of  the Sierra,  and  mounting  upward  to  its  summit,  are  innu- merable valleys,  meadows  and  springs,  lakes,  water- falls, and  cascades,  eroded  canons,  polished  domes,  and volcanic  spindles,  finger  posts  of  the  early  gold-seekers, obelisk  groups,  table  mountains,  kettles,  chests,  forts, caves,  bridges,  sugar-loaves,  cathedral-peaks,  and  uni- corn peaks ;  the  which,  if  they  should  be  described every  one,  I  suppose  that  even  the  world  itself  could not  contain  the  books  that  would  be  written. Many mighty chasms  we  have  on  this  Pacific  slope  beside the Yosemite  canon  of  the  Merced,  and  the  Hetch- hetchy canon  of  the  Tuolumne. There is  the  Amer- ican river with  its  north  and  south  forks  down  two  or three  thousand  feet  in  hard  slate. The Columbia  and the Fraser  rivers  have  their  fifty  miles  and  more  of gorges  several  thousand  feet  deep ;  and  grander  yet, the   KincT   river    canon,   with  its  hard  granite  walls